Abstract: The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is responsible for enforcing Executive Order 11246, as amended, (EO 11246) which prohibits Federal Government contractors and subcontractors from discriminating against individuals in employment based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin. The EO 11246 also requires these employers to take affirmative action to provide equal employment opportunity.
On April 8, 2014, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to the Secretary of Labor, directing him to propose, within 120 days of the date of the memorandum, a rule that would require Federal contractors and subcontractors to submit to the Department of Labor summary data on the compensation paid to their employees, including data by sex and race. While working women have made extraordinary progress over the past five decades since enactment of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, they still earn only 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. For African-American women and Latinas, the pay gap is even greater. This pay differential shortchanges women and their families by thousands of dollars a year, and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Federal law, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity), specifically prohibits compensating men and women differently for the same work. OFCCP regulations at 41 CFR Part 60-1 implementing Executive Order 11246, as amended, set forth obligations of covered contractors and subcontractors.